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Sunday, December 30, 2012

Top 5 of 2012: Inspiration

I'll be honest: I've been struggling to write this post for many days. Like Kristin, I'm loath to list five blogs that inspire me, because then all the others would be left out! I'm sure it has a lot to do with all those years of being a school teacher, striving to make sure everyone is included. So instead, I thought I'd take you through my morning routine, and discuss some of the sites I look at every day that inspire me.

My morning begins when Hubby brings me my coffee in bed. Isn't that just the best? I'm a lucky girl. He also makes much better coffee than I do!

Once the aroma and the first few sips have brought some semblance of coherence to my brain, I sit down on my knitting chair with my computer and get down to business. I usually check my email first, although I'm generally not awake enough to actually deal with any of it!

Next stop is Google Reader. Like many of you, I read (or at least look at) a LOT of blogs every day, and I do look at my reader several times a day during odd spare moments so that it doesn't get too backlogged. I'm usually not awake enough to make comments first thing, so I pull up the posts I want to comment on and save those for later.

I have an extensive blogroll in my sidebar, and this has been imported directly from my reader. I try to update it every few months to keep it current (I just did this last week), so these are usually the blogs I'm following at the moment. Blogs that haven't posted in several months often get removed, as I figure that the raison d'etre of the blogroll is to share the inspiration and I don't want to send anyone off on a path that doesn't really go anywhere!

The reader takes up the majority of my surfing time in the morning. After I've finished with it, I head over to Ravelry, where I check in on my friends' activity. I sometimes look at the finished objects in some of the groups I belong to as well, although now that my reader takes up so much of my time, I'm not doing this as much. Looking at these helps me become aware of patterns I may not have noticed and ways that different knitters have altered patterns to make a project their own.

Once I'm done with Ravelry, I move on to Pinterest. There's lots of inspiration there, and I've discovered a couple of really great blogs by clicking through on pins that look interesting.

A new addition to my morning surfing is BurdaStyle. I joined almost 2 years ago, but only recently started looking at the website (and even more recently, adding my own Burda projects). I really enjoy looking at the projects page to see what people are making and especially how they interpret some of the patterns from the Burda magazine.

And finally, I check out my group activity on Flickr. I'd have to say that Flickr is largely responsible for me getting back into sewing over the last few years. Several years ago, I was hooked on the Wardrobe Remix group. I didn't participate with my own pictures, but I looked at the pool every day and was really impressed with some of the clothes people were making for themselves. I think it was also through Flickr that I discovered Colette Patterns, just before Sarai had started having her patterns printed. And it was through Flickr that I became aware of the sewing blog community. I've added lots of blogs to my ever-growing list by clicking through on projects that have caught my eye in some of the Flickr groups:

14 comments:

It takes time and dedication to keep up doesn't it! I struggle and you keep up with way more forms than me! I couldn't think of checking all of those each day - my reader is enough for me! Thanks for sharing your process though, it's interesting to see how other people keep connected.

Well said! When I created this category it seems like such an easy way to pass forward to good feelings by recognizing the people who inspire and support us... and in practice, it was much, much harder! (I have lessons like that too - when I plan it, it all seems straight forward... then in the middle of teaching I realise, "Wait! This is not as simple for the students as I thought!" Like when we wrote to pen pals, and I realised that my Grade 1's just don't really understand that there are schools and classrooms beyond our own! I didn't see that one coming either!) My routine is a lot like yours.. Google Reader, Twitter, Flickr... at least twice a day!

So many blogs to check! That's why I'm often a little late to the party as I read blog posts backwards (from the oldest to the newest). I don't comment as often as I'd like to either, and I've left Ravelry aside inthe last few months, I'm not even updating my projects... I haven't yet managed to get hooked on Burda Style, though I've also registered a long time ago, sigh.. Too few hours in the day! Not to mention actual sewing and knitting :)Happy new year Gail!

I read blogs backwards too! It is hard to keep up, and I accidentally lost track of you for a while because somehow your blog got deleted from my list of subscriptions (blogger seems to do arbitrary things like that sometimes). I've fixed that now :-)

it's so hard to keep up with all the great blogs, i find my computer time just takes up too much time! but, i always make sure to check out posts from people who occasionally comment on mine; it's a great community out there and i love the give and take. coffee in bed every morning? ahhh.... the life. happy new year to you!

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that in the post. I do the same: if I notice someone new is commenting here, I make sure to check them out and add them to my list too, although I'm not as on top of that as I'd like to be. Room for improvement in the new year!

How do you get anything done?! I find if I sit down with pinterest, I can lose an entire afternoon! The time just disappears. I have to ration my screen time but check in on my blog roll whenever I have a minute. Brushing teeth, feeding the baby, waiting for kiddos to fall asleep (aka now). And I'm still always behind!

Hehehe - it helps that I don't have any children and that Hubby works 12 - 15 hours a day. I have a lot of time to myself. But I could certainly do with rationing my screen time too. I'm finding that I'm letting my housework etc. go in favor of surfing and sewing and knitting. I'm hoping to achieve a better balance in 2013!

In a nutshell:

I started this blog with no clear idea of what the content would be, but rather as a place to compile my thoughts. Turns out, what I mostly think about is knitting, sewing and nail polish. I'm Yellowbird on Ravelry.